Website Slaps Rockford With “Most Dangerous City” Label
Over the years, Rockford has been on the receiving end of all sorts of slings and arrows from different publications, and I don't know that it will ever stop. I'm sure they get their numbers correct, but sometimes it feels like we're being piled on.
The latest hit we're taking comes from a website called 24/7 Wall Street, a financial news and commentary site that covers the stock market, industry research and government policy. They also do some rankings lists, like the "50 Worst Cities To Live In."
Obviously, Rockford didn't fare too well on this list. Before breaking down some of the numbers 24/7 Wall Street came up with, here's what they looked at to make their determinations on the worst cities to live in:
24/7 Wall St. created an index with measures in eight categories — crime, economy, education, environment, health, housing, infrastructure, and leisure — to identify the 50 worst cities to live in. Not confined to a single region, the worst cities span the country from the South to the Midwest and from New England to the Pacific coast.
The good news for Rockford is that we're not the worst place to live. That honor, according to 24/7 Wall Street's index, goes to a city about 370 miles northeast of here, Detroit, Michigan. What more bad things can be said about Detroit that haven't already been said? That's what I thought. Let's move on. Number two on the list is Flint, Michigan, and third place goes to St. Louis.
Rockford has been ranked as the 16th worst place to live in the United States, but 24/7 Wall Street also says that we're the most dangerous city in Illinois:
The city of Rockford, Illinois, has an unemployment rate of 7.7%, the highest of any city in the state and well above the 4.9% annual U.S. jobless rate. The city also ranks as the most dangerous in the state, with a violent crime rate of 1,658 incidents per 100,000 residents in 2016 — which is more than four times the U.S. violent crime rate.
The week jobs picture and high crime likely depress property values in the city. The typical home in Rockford is worth just $89,200, less than half the median home value of $186,500 across the state.